Untoasted Oak

[danath34]

So I picked up some American oak chips from the LHBS for a Barleywine I'm currently doing. I chose American because I've read it gives more oak character. The plan is actually to oak age in the bottle with these:
The Flavor Bomb

Planning on aging for about a year before drinking, so obviously restraint on the amount of oak will be important.

The question is, I didn't think much about the level of toast on the chips when I bought them because the LHBS only had untoasted American and medium toast French. Will I get much oak flavor out of untoasted? I would think so over the course of a year right??

I'm thinking there are three courses of action:
1) Bottle as planned with the untoasted American oak
2) Go back and exchange for medium toast French
3) Attempt to toast the American chips at home, probably in the oven. This would bring out more character and sanitize in the same step, but would risk over oaking, or even ruining the chips if not done right.

Thoughts?

 

[WI_Wino]

I would return them and get oak that is toasted. Untoasted oak is going to taste well, like a tree. The toast is what brings out the vanilla and other flavor descriptors you hear about.

 

[FarmerTed]

I've thrown single oak cubes into bottles with pretty good success after a few weeks. I would go that route rather than buying the flavor bomb things. You really don't need to package the oak in anything-just label the bottle so that you don't forget to remove the cube before serving the beer. You could also try different toast levels in different bottles to see what you like. Medium toast American oak gives a nice bourbon flavor (haven't tried the higher toast levels, but I expect the bourbon flavor may be more pronounced).

 

[November]

Option 3.

I do woodworking as a hobby so I often end up up with chunks that I toast in the oven or on the grill before putting it in beer. As an aside, toasted pecan wood in beer is amazing.

 

[ArcLight]

Planning on aging for about a year before drinking, so obviously restraint on the amount of oak will be important.

Thoughts?

A year?
I get a very strong oak taste if I soak an ounce of oak cubes in bourbon for 6 weeks. I can't imaging what a year would be like.

Can you split your batch into smaller groups/containers?
I'd suggest oaking them and ten tasting periodically.
Once you like one batch, you can remove the oak from the others.